Tiffany Cromwell has sprinted to seventh today at La Course by Le Tour de France in Paris. The UCI Women’s WorldTour race was won by Chloe Hosking (WHT) ahead of Lotta Lepisto (CBT) and pre-race favourite Marianne Vos (RLT).

Devastating news came for CANYON//SRAM Racing midway in the race came when Cromwell’s teammate Barbara Guarischi crashed and was forced to abandon when she suffered a broken left elbow. Guarischi will return to Italy to undergo surgery tomorrow for the elbow fracture. Her recovery time won’t be known until following surgery but the team and partners are wishing her the best recovery possible.

The high pace during La Course by Le Tour de France meant it was hard for breakaways to gain any distinct advantage. British road champion Hannah Barnes was in a four rider move that stayed away for three laps before it was chased down. Following the race Cromwell explained how hectic it was. “It always is. Just with the nature of the course and the wide roads and rough surfaces it always seems to cause a lot of crashes. It was a fairly aggressive race at times but since we only had five riders we had to pick and choose what moves we went with.”

“When we lost Barbara in the crash then it was an extra blow. Hannah’s move was a really good one but just a bit too early into the race. If you had that group together later in the race it could’ve been intriguing. I had a puncture but it was early in the race and it wasn’t too much stress. Sure I had to use some extra energy to get back but I could also recover for a few laps by sitting on and recovering whilst waiting for the sprint whilst my team mates covered the moves.”

“In the final too with maybe 3km to go there was a big crash right next to me and people leaning on me but I was able to stay upright and just avoided it. It was a pretty messy final. No major lead outs by any team. The girls were great in the last two laps keeping me in good position and sticking together. Alena (Amialiusik) did a super strong lead from 2km to go but we did needed more numbers as others started to come around us with less than 1km to go. I was able to get on those wheels but I got stuck on the left side on the barriers as we went through the final corner.”

“My position was still okay and I was feeling good but I couldn’t get a good run for the line and lost a little momentum. With the nature of this sprint, the slight uphill drag and cobbles, if you lose any of your speed or momentum it’s very hard to come back from that and still be in the contest for the victory. The best I could do today was seventh. I would’ve liked to have been able to finish it off for the team when they gave me the opportunity to sprint but it just wasn’t our day today.”

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